The Triumphant Life of Theodore Roosevelt edited by J. Martin Miller

240
THE CONVENTION ASSEMBLES
ARMY AND NAVY STRENGTHENED
We have brought our navy to a high state of efficiency and have exercised both
army and navy in the methods of seacoast defense. The joint army and navy board
has been bringing the two services together in good understanding and the common
study of the strategy, the preparation, and the cooperation which w-ill make them
effective in time of need. Our ships have been exercised in fleet and squadron
movements, have been improved in marksmanship and mobility, and have been con-
stantly tested by use. Since the last national convention met we have completed
and added to our navy five battleships, four cruisers, four monitors, thirty-four tor-
pedo destroyers and torpedo boats, while we have put under construction thirteen
battleships and thirteen cruisers.
Four years ago our army numbered over 100,000 men—regulars and volunteers
75 per cent of them in the Philippines and China. Under the operation of statutes
limiting the period of service, it was about to lapse back into its old and insufficient
number of 27,000, and its old and insufficient organization under the practical con-
trol of permanent staff departments at Washington, with the same divisions of coun-
sel and lack of coordinating and directing power at the head, that led to confusion
and scandal in the war with Spain. During the last four years the lessons taught by
that war have received practical effect.
SHERMAN'S TEACHINGS RESPECTED
The teachings of Sherman and of Upton have been recalled and respected.
Congress has fixed a maximum of the army at 100,000 and a minimum at 60,000, so
that maintaining only the minimum in peace, as we now do, when war threatens
the president may begin preparations by filling the ranks to the maximum without
waiting until after war has begun, as he had to wait in 1S9S. Permanent staff
appointments have been changed to details from the. line, with compulsory returns
at fixed intervals to service with troops, so that the requirements of the field and the
camp rather than the requirements of the office desk shall control the departments
of administration and supply.
A corps organization has been provided for our artiller\-, with a chief of artillery
at the head, so that there may be intelligent use of our costly seacoast defenses.
Under the act of February 14, 1903, a general staff has been established, organized
to suit American conditions and requirements and adequate for the performance of
the long neglected but all-important duties of directing military education and train-
ing, .^nd applying the most advanced principles of military science to that neces-
sary preparation for war, which is the surest safeguard of peace.
The command of the army now rests where it is placed by the constitution— in
the president. His power is exercised through a military chief of staff pledged by